Harry Potter: Before Hogwarts
by clara riddle
Summary: When Harry meets a new person in his life he has no idea of what change they will bring with them.


Harry Potter: Before Hogwarts

Chapter 1: _The Girl_

Harry Potter looked out of the living room window as he was dusting the ornaments on the windowsill and saw a girl crying on the pavement. She had her head in her hands and so couldn't see him watching her but she looked up straight at Harry sorrowfully as if she had known he was watching. He looked away embarrassed, pretending it was just chance that they had looked at each other at the same time. He became very interested in a small ornament of a puppy chasing after a ball whilst taking a quick look to see if the girl was still watching him. She wasn't. She was looking at a man who was talking down at her. He said something and she nodded. Then he helped her up and guided her around the corner. As she was just turning she looked at Harry again and he could see the sorrow in her eyes but it didn't look like sorrow. It was pity in her eyes, pity for him! He gave her a startled look then leapt away from the window and rushed into the hall. He bumped into Uncle Vernon who said promptly

"What's this boy? Finished cleaning already? Well we must be giving you too easy a job. Seeing as you've nothing to do you'd better wash my car hadn't you?" not wanting to make an argument Harry went and got some warm soapy water and a sponge to clean Uncle Vernon's car. When he went outside he looked to the corner where the girl had been but she had long gone. Whilst he washed he wondered about the girl. Why had she looked at him so? Who was the man that led her away? And why was she crying? Harry had a sudden urge to help the girl and find out what was troubling her but after all he was just nobody. What could he do?

The girl was crying on the pavement again then she looked up at Harry but her eyes were hollow full of nothingness. Then she was inside the window like a picture and she put her hand up and her lips moved but Harry could not hear anything. He tried to speak to tell her he couldn't hear her but the window moved away. He stepped closer but it moved away from him. Again and again he moved forward but the picture still moved away until he broke into a run but the window was moving faster and faster until it was gone and there was only a big gaping hole in front of him which he stumbled into then was falling down, down...

Harry sat bolt upright and hit his head on the ceiling, gasping as if he really had been running, which caused a few spiders to fall off it and crawl away back into the shadows. Rubbing his head he looked around him remembering where he was and that there was most unlikely going to be a large gaping hole in the ground. He steadied his breathing with a few deep breaths and reached for the light switch dangling down from the ceiling. He pulled it and another spider came tumbling down. He felt for his glasses, found them successfully under a pair of old trousers that he struggled into, and put them on bringing his surroundings into focus.

He glanced at his watch and nearly hit his head on the ceiling again. It was twenty to nine! He had five minutes to get ready and get to school. He rushed out into the hall in a tangle of sheets and fell over in the hallway. He disentangled himself and returned the half of his bed that he had dragged out with him back into the cupboard under the stairs. He went into the deserted kitchen and scavenged Uncle Vernon's bacon rinds before grabbing his bag and running out of the house as fast as he could, stopping momentarily to close the front door. It wasn't unusual for the Dursleys to forget about him if they had nothing to give him to do. It wasn't the first time this had happened either. Not that they really did care if he got to school on time or not, they just didn't want anybody to come nosing about in their business. He got into the schoolyard just as the bell went and was able to immerse himself in the crowd without being too conspicuous. He sat down at a table on his own at the back of the room where he was safest from the taunts of Dudley and his crew. It didn't work too well because there were always various objects flying back at him. He never told on Dudley because a) the teacher would never believe him and b) it would just give Dudley another opportunity to use him as a punch bag.

Miss Worthington the teacher came into the class and they settled down. She was closely followed by a girl. She was looking at the floor hiding behind a cascade of jet-black hair the same colour as Harry's. She looked up straight at Harry and he nearly jumped out of his seat. Even though tears did not blur them he recognised those unnerving pale blue eyes straight away. Though they contained pity in them no more. It was the girl he had seen last night. Every thing else blurred and all he could see was the girl then he was falling, falling. He was snapped out of his fateful daydream as Miss Worthington introduced the girl.

"Well class we have a new student among us. She has moved here recently and has decided to join our school," she said proudly as if her school had been chosen above all others. The truth was that there were only two primary schools in Little Whinging and the other was a most undesirable institution to attend, "and her name is Clara Riddle. Go on Clara you can sit wherever you like." She said waving an arm to incline her to sit. Clara looked at all the people in the classroom as if deciding where would be best to sit. Then her eyes settled on Harry putting him on the spotlight for a minute. He was not happy with the attention that was being drawn to him. He didn't want this pale-faced stranger to sit by him. She frightened him almost, but he wasn't about to admit that, plus his compulsion to help her wanted her to find more popular children to make friends with. As she looked at him he found himself studying her face. It reminded him of someone but he didn't know whom. He couldn't have known when he was little because he hadn't had any friends at all. He avoided her eyes because they had a chill sadness in them that made him shiver. Full of a past she had left behind long ago. His fears were confirmed when her slight figure made its way towards him. She sat herself thoughtfully beside him and turned to him as Miss Worthington turned to write something on the board.

"Hello, what's your name?" she said shyly. Her voice was soft and warm in comparison to her eyes. It amazed Harry.

"I-I'm Harry." He said shocked at the sudden question. That seemed to settle something in her mind because she settled into her chair and opened her bag and got her pencil case out. Harry thought he ought to help her out by explaining his infectious unpopular position. "You shouldn't sit here." He said to her.

"Why not?" she asked innocently. Harry didn't think he would be able to explain it to her now. Not with Miss Worthington giving him looks for talking. He would have to sort it out later.

When the lunch bell went he was the last person to leave the classroom as usual. He sat down on a bench in shadow to eat his lunch so that he wouldn't be a target for other peoples' lunches. He was half immersed in a sandwich when someone sat next to him. It was Clara. He thought it would be best if he tried to explain how it would be best not to be associated with him because of all the trouble it would cause. However, she beat him to it.

"Why are you sitting all the way over here?" she asked watching the rest of the school far away over the other side of the playground.

"I'm not all that popular with the others. They don't seem to like being around me. Well, it's actually mostly Dudley and his crew, Dudley's my cousin, but no one wants to get on the wrong side of him by being around me 'cause he doesn't like me all that much." He felt like saying more about the way he always felt left out, how Dudley had rendered him friendless, how no one could ever let him know they liked him in case Dudley got wind and beat them up and how he felt so lonely inside it was like he didn't exist but she was a complete stranger and he wasn't in the mood for spilling his soul out to some random person.

"Why?" asked Clara. Just one simple question but it triggered something in Harry that made him share all his feelings about it with a complete stranger. But then again she wasn't a _complete_ stranger he thought, as he was talking. He did know her name and she had chosen to sit next to _him_ so there was a chance that she could become his friend. No, he couldn't let his fate fall upon her too he had to do something.

"...So you see that if you are seen hanging around me you'll have the same problems so I'd think it would be best if you sat with the others when we go back inside. They'll realise that you just made a mistake by sitting by me and you'll be accepted into the group." He ended. Clara looked at him blankly for a moment thinking about what he had said. He got up and walked away from the bench to give her some time to come to her senses.

Not long after, the bell went. All the students trudged slowly back into class. Harry got into the classroom quickly so that no one would have enough time to try and corner him and make him late. He watched from the safety of his desk in his dark corner of the room. He watched as all his classmates trundled into the classroom one by one. Then, last of all, framed in the doorway, her hair settling around her face after fluttering about in the gentle breeze in the doorway.

She looked directly into his eyes. He knew, even before it happened, that she was going to sit next to him again, regardless of what he had said and he also knew that nothing was going to change her mind. Whatever the reason Harry was glad, because he now had someone to fill the large gaping hole inside of him. At least, for now.


End file.
